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Monday, September 5, 2011

September Before and After: A New Light

Well HEY! Hope you had a great weekend! We did a lot of bumming around and being productive – a little of both extremes. :)

Tonight’s before and after is brought to you by the continued science fair that is our kitchen. I showed you the mess the water damage has created, and last Friday, the madness continued.

We had noticed a few weeks ago that the framing around our back door was rotting away. We thought it would be a quick fix, and our handyman did too. That is until he started removing trim and found massive amounts of water damage – separate from the mess in the rest of the kitchen:

That’s a hole in our kitchen floor. For a brief moment in time we had a fabulous source of natural light in the basement. ;) I try to look at the bright side.

I told him to just tear out the floors cause they were going anyway -- thank GOODNESS we discovered this before replacing the floors!! (And no, there’s still no movement on that – hopefully this week.)

The folks who built our deck made it too high – so for six years the water has been flowing into the door frame every time it rained. That eventually ate away at the trim, the subfloor and the threshold.

Anyhoo, our awesome handyman worked from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and got it fixed up and did a few little changes that will keep this from happening again. LOVE HIM.

So…there’s been a little change I’ve been wanting to make to the kitchen for a while now, and this weekend I decided to do it. Because I needed to do something to the space that would make me feel in control again.

Or maybe I just wanted a pretty new light. Who knows. ;)

Recently something has been bugging me about light over the kitchen table:

I love it! But it felt too light…I don’t know, just not substantial enough. Once I realized what it was that was buggin’ me, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I just wanted something that was a bit more dramatic to fill that “space” in the room.

I think it was $140? It was LUUURVE at first sight. I think I gasped just a bit when I saw it in the store, cause I knew it would look so good over our table.

I installed it the other night (with very little daylight to spare – I forget the sun sets so much earlier already!) and I couldn’t be happier with it:

It adds a little contemporary flare to the space:

I love it combined with our antique claw foot table. :)

I think what I love most is that it sends all of the light down to the table – it is SO much brighter under there now:

And of course I have it on a dimmer switch so it looks fab down low or up high. I love it!!

I thought about spraying it black for about two hot seconds, but I think we have enough black going on. (And at night it looks black anyway.) I’m working on some ways to bring some more color into this side of the kitchen, but for now, I love how this has changed it up a bit:

And look how calm our kitchen looks from this side (although you can see where I covered the torn out flooring by the door with the rug).

This side tells the real story of the past week:

This is what happens when your pile spot (your island) is in the office. ;)

So here’s my before and after for this month –- the previous chandelier on the left, the new pendant on the right:

Typically your fixture should hang about 28 to 32 inches above your table and I always end up cutting my wires too short when I install. ALWAYS. This one hangs 32 above the table, which I’m now happy about because any lower would have been directly in the eye line (for me anyway). As it is we can see under it well.

I found an old photo of the light after I installed it last year and it’s fun to see the changes since then:

Including the addition of a cute (rascally) dog. ;) And the removal of a floor. Gah.

So let’s see your projects! Link them UP!

I’d appreciate it GREATLY if you could link back to this post or at least my blog in your post. You can use this button if you’d like:

Oh dear. Here's hoping your water problems will be over soon! :(On a brighter note, I love the new chandy! There is something about drum shades that make me happy... and the pattern on that one is lovely! (from Lowes? really!?)Thanks so much for hosting!

That light is gorgeous!!! I love the look of chandeliers, but that pendant really completes the space and ties it all together beautifully.

*HUGS* on all the crap you've been going through. Water damage is not kind, but I hope things get settled and soon.

And thank you for the guidelines on the height, my light fixture has been needing to be swagged for awile, is driving me nuts, and my husband doesn't understand why. I think we're at 22 inches or so above the table? hahaha, so way, WAY too low!

Love the new light! What a good find. Definitely brings a punch of fun into the space. And sniff sniff about your kitchen floor! That just cannot be fun in any sense of the word! At least the dehumidifiers are gone, right? : )

Thanks for hosting the par-tay! We ripped off some paneling in our basement last night because of long, slow water damage. The baseboards are rotten. I feel your pain! We're thinking we're going to have to get an excavator to dig out around the house to find the water entry. Fun times! Good luck!

Thanks for hosting! Boo to water damage! Ugh. Been there, done that, blocked it from my mind thank you very much. Hopefully, you can do something fun with the new floor. I do really like the light. I am looking at a similar style for our new house. :)

I really love your new light fixture! Here's a link to a mini project of mine - http://unlockingthepossibilities.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-project-my-bedroom-art.html. I linked back to your post. I'm not sure how to link up! Sorry!

I was eyeing that exact same light at Lowe's this weekend!! Love it! My dining room walls are almost exactly the color of yours so your pictures are liking previewing what it would look like in my dining room...thanks! LOL!

LOVE the light!!! My birthday is next month and I know now what I will be asking for!! It's in stock at the Lowe's down the street for my house. I've never liked my builder's grade fixture and this is GORGEOUS!! Love your kitchen, your house and all of your ideas!

Oh I am Loving your light fixture! We have so many horrible light fixtures (3 which are in the kitchen) and they drive me batty! They're just not the top priority right now...which sucks. You give me hope though. The pendant makes such a difference in your room!

Your new light is fab!!! I love it! And what a good girl you are Sarah, you did not paint it black, lol. I think it looks just right as it is:) As I said before, you will magically make your kitchen look even better than it did before the little fridge accident, and here we go: you started already, hahaha! Fantastic:)Have a great day!

Im so sorry for what going on in your kitchen! But way to look on the bright side (no pun intended) Love the new light, I think it def makes the space look all that much better! Ive actually been contemplating that exact light myself but wasnt sure how it would look. Now I know!!! I better make a Lowes run :)

Love the new light fixture. It looks great in your kitchen. The problem with your floor? We had the same problem! Our floor at the door/deck has been cutaway twice and the flooring replaced. I hope it works this time.

Stop the world. That new light is fantastic! But you said nothing about that fabulous bell on your wall -- I LOVE that! It's the cute little things like that that make a house a home. Everything you do is brilliant, Sarah. I hope your bad luck ends soon!

I would never have thought of changing out your old fixture, as I too loved it. HOWEVER, you had vision and your new fixture is fanfreakintastic! I love how you showed your previous look and what an impact a couple of black doors can make! It makes the space so much richer and classier!

When I first saw the pendant light, I kind turned my nose up at it but when I saw the before and after pictures...you won me over!!! I really like the light fixture and it does look great! Good job :) Now for the rest of the kitchen...what a mess!!! I know, you don't need to be reminded, huh? Sorry :/

I love that light fixture! There are actually a lot of similar fixtures at Overstock.com, with different patterns on the shades, about the same price, maybe a little cheaper. Check them out! http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Chandeliers-Pendants/Pendants,/category,/34/subcat.html?TID=VS:Lighting:A2

Wow! You've had so much going on this summer, but the kitchen fiasco is a total mega bummer! I'm so sorry y'all have to go thru all of this. But you're right--you have to roll with it, because what else can you do? Hang in there, Sarah! Try not to get hives.